The treatment landscape for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) has changed significantly over the past two decades. Currently, there are several FDA-approved drugs available for GIST treatment, namely sunitinib (Sutent), regorafenib (Stivarga), ripretinib (Qinlock), and avapritinib (Ayvakit).
Initially, the targeted therapy drug imatinib (Gleevec) was often used as a first-line treatment for patients with GIST. However, patients with advanced GIST or those who cannot continue imatinib due to adverse reactions need other options.
In this setting, sunitinib is currently considered the standard second-line treatment for these patients. Sunitinib works by targeting the KIT gene and inhibiting blood vessel growth in the tumor. Another option is regorafenib.
In addition, when sunitinib is no longer effective, other targeted therapies, such as ripretinib, which have been included in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) clinical practice guidelines, can be used to treat patients with GIST.
For patients who don’t respond to these therapies, there are other options in the form of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as pazopanib (Votrient), nilotinib (Tasigna), and dasatinib (Sprycel).
The following table includes novel targeted therapies:
